Transfer News: Thomas Tuchel confirms Antonio Rudiger will leave Chelsea this summer
Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that Chelsea star Antonio Rudiger will leave Stamford Bridge in the coming summer transfer window. This update would undoubtedly deal a major blow to his side, considering how important the central defender has been to their backline in recent times.
Rudiger will see his current contract with the Blues expire at the end of this season. The English club are unable to engage in renewal talks with him because of the sanctions imposed on them by the UK Government. As such, the centre-back has decided to depart his club, with Tuchel now reiterating the matter.
Speaking in an interview with Adam Newson (h/t Fabrizio Romano), Tuchel conveyed that Rudiger expressed his intention to leave in a private talk regarding his future. The German boss added that they do not take the defender’s decision personally as they simply could not fight to keep hold of him due to the restrictions.
“He [Rudiger] wants to leave the club. He informed me in a private talk. We gave everything but we could not fight anymore because of the actions. Rudiger will leave as we can’t compete because of the sanctions. But now we don’t take it personally. It’s his decision.”
Worst-case scenario!
It is really unfortunate to see that we are forced into this situation because of the UK Government. While the sanctions do make sense from their perspective, the Government should have at least given us some leeways to protect our interests. After all, the West London club is a cultural asset, and they should have eased the restrictions to give us a chance to keep hold of our stars.
That is not the case, as we are set to face a scenario where we would lose one of our best performers for free after this campaign. We cannot blame the German international for taking this decision as he would want to secure his future prospects as early as possible.
It does not help how the sale process has dragged on for quite a while, as finalising the ownership takeover could have prevented this scenario. But we cannot rue on what could have happened as we must prepare for life past the 29-year-old. As such, the club must do their best to find suitable targets to replace Rudiger once the sanction is lifted.
We cannot even hope for a change in this scenario, considering how the Premier League ace is already in advanced negotiations with Real Madrid over a potential transfer. After all, he can reach a pre-contract agreement with foreign clubs, and following this confirmation, it seems that the matter is closed.
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The potential new owners of the club must do their best to back the 48-year-old coach this summer as we are at risk of being subjected to a defensive crisis. Andreas Christensen is set to join Barcelona, while Cesar Azpilicueta could potentially follow suit. Hence, they must realise the risk and address them so that we do not get adversely affected moving forward.
It really looks like a poor call letting Marc Guehi and Fikayo Tomori leave permanently last summer. If even one of those two deals was a loan move rather than a permanent one, we could have been in a better position to cushion the blow from a potential defensive exodus this summer. Were the club confident back then about tying down some of our stars on a longer deal? That is anyone’s guess.